In Japan, terrestrial television broadcasting using digital signals was started in part of the country at the end of the year 2003, and is planned to be expanded to cover the entire country in the year 2006.
The terrestrial digital broadcasting will use UHF (Ultra-High Frequency) band, which includes physical channels from channel 13 to channel 62. Therefore, there is going to be a drastic increase in the number of channels as compared to VHF (Very High Frequency) band which is used in the current standard analog broadcasting.
In the current television broadcasting, broadcasting channels are fixed for each area, and television receivers are so made that when a user buys a new television receiver, he/she can input an area identification code such as a Postal Code which is specific to the location of installation (the area where the user lives). Through such an arrangement, channels available in the area can be set to channel selection positions. For this purpose, the television receivers store, in advance, a lookup table which relates available channels in each of the areas to channel selection positions, for the entire area of Japan.
Like the terrestrial analog-signal broadcasting, the terrestrial digital broadcasting will be made by a plurality of broadcast stations located in different regions. For this reason, selecting the place of installation (the area where the user lives) and setting channels available in the area to channel selection positions are also operations which need to be performed in the terrestrial digital receiver.
In the terrestrial digital broadcasting receivers, it is possible to identify the broadcasting company (broadcast station), etc. on the receiving channel, based on information added in a multiplex broadcast signal.
There is proposed an apparatus which is capable of making the setting on the place of living where the receiver is installed based on actual broadcast signals received, and is capable of making assignment to numeric keys on a remote controller based on the setting on the area where the user lives.
[Patent Document 1] JP-A 2005-79861 Gazette